By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

In this day and age, most everyone has heard of “planned communities.” They are essentially little towns (or subdivisions) that are perfectly engineered to have just the right ratio of houses to businesses to green space, carefully packaged to attract more people to a region. We see the advertisements all the time. Would you believe that New Braunfels, along with nearly every community established by the Adelsverein, is actually a planned community … right down to the “planned open spaces”?

When Prince Carl arrived with the first immigrants, he had Nicholas Zink, a civil engineer, survey the area, lay out town lots and blocks, and designate “planned open spaces” for future use such as churches, meeting areas and other town properties. Immigrants under the auspices of the Verein were to receive a town lot, a farm lot and assistance with basic supplies and food to help them get started in Texas.

Originally, the food was distributed from the Vereinsgebäude (headquarters buildings) und Magazin (warehouse) on Sophienburg Hill. The Magazin, once located approximately where the Dittlinger home stands, is how Magazine Street came to be named. As more and more immigrants arrived, it became clear that the provisions held by the warehouse were not sufficient to support them all. So, like all good people in Texas, they bought cattle!

Cattle to provide the daily provision of beef. Cattle for survival. I know what you are thinking … where did they keep them? Downtown, of course. On a wonderful little “planned open space” just a stone’s throw from the center of town, the Verein set up a meat distribution center for immigrants. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Except, the whole “hoof-to-table” operation was right there on the space of one downtown block — combination stockyard/slaughterhouse/butcher shop in August heat. Mmmmm.

The Verein engaged butcher Henry Burkhart to run the slaughterhouse. Initially, the new immigrants were not charged for the butchering service until the successful establishment of the town was assured. The only charge was for the cost to purchase the animals for butchering. People had to arrive early in the morning to receive their ration of meat for the day.

A late 1840s map shows that the unnamed town lot had a building called the Fleischhalle located on the south end of the open lot, right at the edge of Comal Avenue. Fleischhalle translates literally as “Meat Hall,” but “Meat Market”, “Butcher Shop” or “Market House” would be a more recognizable to us. It was described as an open air shed for butchering. The area around the Market House became known as the Marktplatz, now Market Plaza.

As the town grew, so did private enterprise. In 1857, city ordinances regulated butchering and required meat to be sold only through the Market House. Multiple butchers, each with their own cutting blocks, rented space in the butcher shed that was said to be 20 feet wide and 40 or 60 feet long. Holding cattle in town was no longer necessary. In the afternoons, the butchers would go out to the farms to purchase the beeves, then they would butcher and field-dress and skin the carcasses there in the country. They would bring the carcasses to the shed to hang and cool overnight, dropping the skins off at either of the two tanneries. Incidentally, one of those two tanneries was Tolle Tannery. The Market Plaza faces Comal Avenue and is bordered on three sides by Tolle Street. Tolle Street leads down to the Comal River and former location of Tolle Tannery.

What began as a short-term solution to supply the immigrants with provisions evolved into a long-term commercial success lasting more than 60 years. New Braunfels continued to grow and became more “worldly” with the arrival of the railroad in 1880. The smelly business of butchering, complete with flies, was no longer welcome by downtown residents and businesses. (There was no AC!)    In 1908, a petition by citizens on Market Square was presented to the city, calling attention to the unsanitary condition of the surroundings and things began to change.

After serving the area as a central market point, Market Plaza was rented out for various activities. It was the perfect location for storing various crops, such as cotton, until they could be processed in the mills. The site was also the perfect location for a variety of entertainment, including amusement rides, carnivals, music shows and traveling tent theaters. It was close to the center of town, but away from any “traffic” or noise from horse-drawn carriages and automobiles of the day.

It is possible that one of the first movies shown in New Braunfels was at the Market Plaza. In a 1973 New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung article, Frederic Oheim shared remembrances of the first film being shown in New Braunfels. It was a series of short subjects shown as part of a traveling carnival set up on Market Plaza, although he did not see it. He was a kid, and the topic was a little risque.

Just like now, any open space becomes attractive to those who want to build. The Market Plaza was considered as a building site for several projects through the years, but none were carried out, including: an American Legion Memorial Hall (1921), a New City Hall (1929), a Community Center (1934), and a parking lot (1956). In 1937, Emmie Seele Faust offered to fund the building of the first free-standing public city library if they built it on Market Plaza. The citizens of the surrounding streets complained that it would create too much traffic. Emmie Seele Faust Library was then built on the corner of Coll and Magazine, on a lot offered by the Sophienburg Memorial Association.

Even­tu­ally, af­ter failed at­tempts to build on the Plaza for any use, it be­came a park. The Mar­ket Plaza park on Tolle Street is ap­prox­i­mately 500 feet long and 60 feet wide. The City of New Braun­fels has taken steps in re­cent years to make the park even more invit­ing by adding side­walks, pic­nic ta­bles, shade per­gola, land­scap­ing and a wa­ter foun­tain.

The Comal County Historic Commission has designated Market Plaza at 292 Tolle St. as an historic site, the significance of which helped ensure the survival of New Braunfels founding families in 1845. The importance of this historic site will be commemorated with a Texas Historic Marker ceremony to be held in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Sources: Comal County Historic Commission; Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

“Around the Sophienburg” is published every other weekend in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

As I sit gazing out the back door of the Sophienburg museum on this gloomy December afternoon, it makes me smile as I watch the yearlings romp and play. The does graze nearby in an old pecan orchard adjacent to the Dittlinger home. The jewel of the Sophienburg Hill Historic District, it is one of my favorite scenes — worthy of being captured on canvas. I have never been inside the Dittlinger home, but I have watched it through the changing seasons from my museum window. Today, its balconies and doors are decked out in Christmas greenery. It is captivating.

Begun in 1907 and completed in 1910, the two-story brick home was built by J. Wahrenberger & Son architects of Austin, Texas, for industrialist Hippolyt Dittlinger. It is difficult to place the home in just one architectural style. It is really a composite of Greek Revival and Italianate styles. I must admit, I had to look all of that up. In my limited knowledge of architectural styles, I will try to explain in very simplistic terms. Greek Revival is rather square and symmetrical with tall porches and columns, like the White House. Italianate style houses are of brick or stone, two or three stories tall with bay windows. They are easily distinguished by their gently sloping roofs and deep ornate overhanging eaves. The Dittlinger home has architectural details of both styles.

A large, two-story bay window is the focal point of the front of the house. The front porches stretching two stories gives the appearance that the house is much larger than its 3300 square feet (not including the attic and basement). The columns of the two-tiered porches are round. Mixed styles of columns are utilized throughout the entire design.

The roof lines are emphasized with a band of heavy ornate brackets under the eaves. The northwest side of the house has a carriage entrance with a porte cochere along with a servants’ entrance. The southeast side of the home has a two-tiered side porch. The second story enclosed porch, which served as a sleeping porch, was once an open veranda until it was roofed and glassed.

The mechanical and electrical systems built into the home were quite advanced for the era. A large coal furnace transferred heat through the first floor by means of ducts. The coal furnace was later replaced with a boiler and radiator system. There are no fireplaces in the home. It was also reported that Mr. Dittlinger considered it a sign of wealth not to have a fireplace.

The grand Magazine Avenue home still sits on about an acre and a half of land. There were several other structures on the property as well. Directly behind the main house stood the carriage house. It was a large wooden barn built as the planing mill while the main house was built. The lumber (long leaf yellow pine) arrived by rail from East Texas. Once the main house was finished, the barn became the carriage house boasting a tack room, horse stalls, carriage space, a single automobile bay, and a large hay loft.

Elsewhere on the property was a two-story concrete structure serving as the laundry house. On the lower level was a large water storage tank beside a concrete block stove. The water in the tank was solar heated by piping running across the roof and returning to the storage tank. There were four rinsing sinks in the center of the room. The original wooden laundry house burned down in 1919. After that event, a water well was drilled and a pump house built with a 75-foot steel tower and a 10,000-gallon cypress holding tank. Two smaller wooden frame homes were moved onto the site shortly after the completion of the main house. One was utilized by the Dittlinger’s daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Liebscher, for a short time after they first married. It was mostly known as the “Professor’s House” because it housed the professor who tutored the children. The second wooden house was “Bauer House,” where a family friend lived. Back behind the wooden houses was a chicken coop.

Between the main house and carriage house, there was once a garden. Numerous large pecan trees dotted the property. Many of the pecan trees on the site were planted as each of the Dittlinger’s grandchildren were born. The adjacent corner pecan orchard and Liebscher House facing Coll Street were also owned by the Dittlinger family at one time.

The home, the furnishings, and the Dittlinger legacy were maintained intact while the Dittlinger family descendants occupied it. The property has changed hands twice since. From the outside, the main house appears mostly unchanged. However, children playing in the yard and deer resting in the shadows bring life to the 112-year-old beauty… and it makes me smile.

Sources: Reflections; Sophienburg Museum & Archives; The Past Through Tomorrow: Preserving the Historic Home by Julie Rogers.

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